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Canadian ice dancers Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje skated an impressive short program on Friday afternoon at the Canadian figure skating championships, but Weaver was almost in tears afterward.

Not because of anything that happened during their 42nd Street-inspired short, which earned them second-place marks of 72.68 points at the Canadian Tire Centre, 3.48 behind long-time rivals Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.

It’s just that an Olympic berth is so close now (the top three ice dance teams qualify for Sochi), they can taste it. And after what they went through four years ago, qualifying for the Sochi Olympics would taste incredibly good.

Flash back four years: In June of 2010, the Houston-born Weaver received her Canadian citizenship at a ceremony in Kitchener after a special grant of citizenship issued by the federal cabinet, enabling her to compete at the Olympics in Vancouver. But at the Canadian championships later that season in London, Ont., Weaver and Poje finished third, 3/10ths of a point behind Vanessa Crone and Paul Poirier for second place and the final Olympic spot.

Virtue and Moir, of course, won the Canadians and went on to take gold at the Olympic Games. For Weaver, especially, missing the Vancouver Olympics after working so hard to get her citizenship was a devastating blow.

But now, after taking second place with their short on Friday, Sochi is almost a sure thing. In third are Alexandra Paul and Mitchell Islam of the of the Barrie Skating Club (67.67).

“We’ve been pushing ourselves so hard for the past four years, it feels like a lifetime ago and we’re different people now so we’re happy with where we are,” said the 24-year-old Weaver, her voice breaking.

“But it’s still a sore spot, I can tell you, standing right here. It makes me emotional thinking about how we felt at this event four years ago. But that is the very reason why we don’t want that to ever happen again.”

Her partner agreed.

“It’s been very fundamental for our outlook on skating every day, just making sure that we put our hearts on the line and everything on the line in every day of training and every performance because that (the 2010 Canadians) was a turning point for us,” said Poje, a Waterloo, Ont., native. “We felt like we let ourselves down with what we did and we wanted to make sure that never happened again.”

You certainly can’t knock the popular dance team for being overjoyed at the chance to qualify for Sochi. They’ve gone through a lot as a team, including their bitter disappointment of 2010 and a serious injury suffered by Weaver last year that resulted in their missing the 2013 nationals. On Dec. 14, 2012, Weaver fractured her left fibula when she fell into the boards training in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and had to undergo surgery four days later in Toronto — though they did rebound to place fifth at the world championships, with Virtue and Moir taking second.

Now, not only are they expecting to be named to the Olympic team following Saturday’s freedance program, Weaver and Poje hope to win a medal in Sochi.

It’s almost certain that Virtue and Moir, as defending Olympic champions and two-time world champions, will be in the mix for the gold in Sochi, though neither were particularly thrilled with their short program on Friday, even though they won the event quite handily. The expression on their faces while waiting for their results in the Kiss & Cry Area weren’t expressions of glee.

“We’re really perfectionists and it felt like we had a couple of moments today that just weren’t the way we’ve been training,” said Moir. “And that’s probably the emotion that you see in our face in the Kiss & Cry area.

He added, “There’s a lot of pressure and we want to compete well for our Canadian fans and the good thing was, that was great practice for Sochi. But we didn’t perform under that pressure as well as we’d like to.”

Virtue and Moir were deducted a point for a long lift, but other than that, they were vague on what their little mistakes were, although they both admitted that they’re probably being harder on themselves than what the performance merited.

“Just technical things, really,” said Moir, when asked about their errors. “I felt like I was battling a little with my knees today and wasn’t quite in the ice. I don’t know. Maybe I was watching world junior highlights or something. We left some (points) on the board today.”

The big battle in Saturday’s free dance will likely be between Paul and Islam and fourth-place finishers Poirier and partner Piper Gilles for the third and final Olympic spot for Sochi.

Meanwhile, defending Canadian pairs champs Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford are first after Friday’s short with 75.80 points, followed by Kirsten Moore-Towers and Dylan Moscovitch with 74.96, and Paige Lawrence and Rudi Swiegers third with 61.67. The top three pairs teams also qualify for Sochi.

Canadian ice dancers Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje close to Olympic berth

Canadian ice dancers Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje skated an impressive short program on Friday afternoon at the Canadian figure skating championships, but Weaver was almost in tears afterward.

Not because of anything that happened during their 42nd Street-inspired short, which earned them second-place marks of 72.68 points at the Canadian Tire Centre, 3.48 behind long-time rivals Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.

It’s just that an Olympic berth is so close now (the top three ice dance teams qualify for Sochi), they can taste it. And after what they went through four years ago, qualifying for the Sochi Olympics would taste incredibly good.